Looking Back at CES 2009: Windows Mobile

The 2009 Consumer Electronics Show seemed to be dominated by Palm's announcement of the Pre but quietly in a back conference room it appears that Microsoft was unveiling it's road map to next week's Mobile World Congress. Smartphonethoughts.com has posted a 20 minute video of a presentation made by Greg Sullivan, Microsoft's Senior Production Manager for Windows Mobile, during the 2009 CES.

In his presentation Sullivan notes that two million Windows Mobile phones in 2008 but what's more interesting is the concept he outlines where Microsoft treats the phone, web and computer as one platform. Where Microsoft is working towards a seamless connection between the three that exposes all the hardware capabilities a Windows phone has. He never refers to it as My Phone but the concept is very similar. Sullivan stresses the desire to link the physical world with the internet several times through out his twenty minute presentation. You can also get a taste of applications such as Netflix and Microsoft Tag.

Sullivan also offers an update on the new Pocket Internet Explorer release which will include Adobe Flash support. He explains that it will only be available on new devices with no retrofit possible. They considered releasing a .CAB file for existing devices to use but there would too many hardware/software integration issues -- honestly it would cause more pain than joy (a lesson being leared on the Sprint Treo Pro right now, apparently).

While much of what is covered in the presentation may be "old news" today, I think it gives us a good indication that while Microsoft didn't make a big splash at the 2009 CES with regards to Windows Mobile, they aren't sitting on their hands either.